A group decision making process using delphi-type interaction and its experimental evaluation

Abstract

A group decision making process is often adopted for creating, comparing and prioritizing multiple alternative solutions to a problem. This paper proposes a semi-structured discussion approach involving Delphi type interaction for properly managing such a group decision making process. The approach divides a whole discussion process into several rounds, and, at the beginning of each round, the members' overall evaluation scores on the solutions at the time are aggregated and their distribution is visually feedback to each member. This makes it apparent how differently minorities evaluate the solutions. As a result, the focus of discussion is spontaneously drawn to, for example, background information of the difference. This can prevent the group from falling into groupthink and lead to a higher quality decision integrating the intellectual contributions of not only majorities but also minorities. Further, laboratory experiments are conducted to confirm whether the proposed discussion approach works as expected.